US7533333B2 - Object-oriented method and system of remote diagnostic, control and information collection using multiple formats and multiple protocols - Google Patents

Abstract

A system, method and program product for diagnosing, controlling and collecting information from devices. Information regarding events of each one of a plurality of target applications executing in an application unit is collected and formatted into one of multiple data formats for transmission through one of multiple communication protocols at the request of each of the target applications, through an interface. The event information for a particular target application is formatted and transmitted according to a combination of a data format and communication protocol requested by the target application. The formatting of data representing the event information is handled in at least three levels of software classes, with two levels of abstract classes and one concrete software class. The formatting of information to be transmitted through the requested communication protocol is handled in at least three levels of software classes, with one abstract class and two levels of concrete classes. The formatted data is transmitted through, e.g., e-mail or FTP to a predetermined destination or may be saved to local storage, e.g., a local disk. By sharing resources, code duplication is reduced or eliminated.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is related to and being concurrently filed with three other patent applications: U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/782,187, entitled “Method and System of Remote Diagnostic, Control and Information Collection Using a Shared Resource”; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/782,164, entitled “Method and System of Remote Diagnostic, Control and Information Collection Using Multiple Formats and Multiple Protocols with Verification of Formats and Protocols”; and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/782,083, entitled “Method and System of Remote Diagnostic, Control and Information Collection Using Multiple Formats and Multiple Protocols with Delegating Protocol Processor”, each filed on Feb. 14, 2001, and incorporated herein by reference. The present application is also related to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/190,460, filed Nov. 13, 1998, entitled “Method and System for Translating Documents Using Different Translation Resources for Different Portions of the Documents,” which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/654,207, filed May 28, 1996, entitled “Method and System for Translating Documents Using Different Translation Resources for Different Portions of the Documents,” now U.S. Pat. No. 5,848,386; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/997,482, filed Dec. 23, 1997, entitled “Object-oriented System and Computer Program Product for Mapping Structured Information to Different Structured Information,” now U.S. Pat. No. 6,085,196; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/997,705, filed Dec. 23, 1997, entitled “Method and Apparatus for Providing a Graphical User Interface for Creating and Editing a Mapping of a First Structural Description to a Second Structural Description”; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/756,120, filed Jan. 9, 2001, entitled “Method and System of Remote Support of Device Using E-mail”; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/668,162, filed Sep. 25, 2000, entitled “Method and System of Data collection and Mapping From a Remote Position Reporting Device”; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/575,710, filed Jul. 25, 2000, entitled “Method and System of Remote Diagnostic and Information Collection and Service System”; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/575,702, filed Jul. 12, 2000, entitled “Method and System of Remote Position Report Device”; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/453,934, filed May 17, 2000, entitled “Method and System of Remote Diagnostic, Control and Information Collection Using a Dynamic Linked Library for Multiple Formats and Multiple Protocols”; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/453,935, filed May 17, 2000, entitled “Method and System of Remote Diagnostic, Control and Information Collection Using a Dynamic Linked Library of Multiple Formats and Multiple Protocols With Intelligent Protocol Processor”; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/453,937, filed May 17, 2000, entitled “Method and System of Remote Diagnostic, Control and Information Collection Using a Dynamic Linked Library of Multiple Formats and Multiple Protocols With Restriction on Protocol”; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/453,936, filed May 17, 2000, entitled “Method and System of Remote Diagnostic, Control and Information Collection Using a Dynamic Linked Library of Multiple Formats and Multiple Protocols with Intelligent Formatter”; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/542,284, filed Apr. 4, 2000, entitled “System and Method to Display Various Messages While Performing the Tasks or While Idling”; U.S. patent application Ser. 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No. 09/440,646, filed Nov. 16, 1999, entitled “Method and System to Monitor the Application Usage and Send Back the Information Using Connection and Connectionless Mode”; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/440,645, filed Nov. 16, 1999, entitled “Application Unit Monitoring and Reporting System and Method With Usage Data Logged Into a Map Structure”; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/408,443, filed Sep. 29, 1999, entitled “Method and System for Remote Diagnostic, Control, and Information Collection Based on various Communication Modes for Sending Messages to a Resource Manager”; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/407,769, filed Sep. 29, 1999, entitled “Method and System for Remote Diagnostic, Control and Information Collection Based on various Communication Modes for Sending Messages to Users”; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/393,677, filed Sep. 10, 1999, entitled “Application Unit Monitoring and Reporting System and Method”; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/311,148, filed May 13, 1999, entitled “Application Unit Monitoring and Reporting System and Method”; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/192,583, filed Nov. 17, 1998, entitled “Method and System for Communicating With a Device Attached to a Computer Using Electronic Mail Messages”; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/883,492, filed Jun. 26, 1997, entitled “Method and System for Diagnosis and Control of Machines Using Connectionless Modes Having Delivery Monitoring and an Alternate Communication Mode”; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/820,633, filed Mar. 19, 1997, entitled “Method and System to Diagnose a Business Office Device Based on Operating Parameters Set by a User,” now U.S. Pat. No. 5,887,216; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/733,134, filed Oct. 16, 1996, entitled “Method and System for Diagnosis and Control of Machines Using Connectionless Modes of Communication,” now U.S. Pat. No. 5,909,493; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/880,683, filed Jun. 23, 1997, U.S. patent applications Ser. No. 09/107,989 and Ser. No. 09/108,705, both of which were filed Jul. 1, 1998, all three of which are entitled “Method and System for Controlling and Communicating with Machines Using Multiple Communication Formats,” and all three of which are divisions of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/624,228, filed Mar. 29, 1996, entitled “Method and System for Controlling and Communicating with Machines Using Multiple Communication Formats,” now U.S. Pat. No. 5,818,603; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/457,669, entitled “Method and System for Diagnosis and Control of Machines Using Connection and Connectionless Modes of Communication,” filed Dec. 9, 1999, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/916,009, entitled “Method and System for Diagnosis and Control of Machines Using Connection and Connectionless Modes of Communication,” filed Aug. 21, 1997, which is a continuation of, and U.S. patent applications Ser. Nos. 08/738,659 and 08/738,461, filed Oct. 30, 1996, both of which are entitled “Method and System for Diagnosis and Control of Machines Using Connection and Connectionless Modes of Communication,” which are divisions of, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/463,002, filed Jun. 5, 1995, entitled “Method and System for Diagnosis and Control of Machines Using Connection and Connectionless Modes of Communication”, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,819,110; and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/852,413, filed May 7, 1987, entitled “Method and System for Controlling and Communicating with Business Office Devices,” now U.S. Pat. No. 5,774,678, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/698,068, filed Aug. 15, 1996, entitled “Method and Apparatus for Controlling and Communicating With Business Office Devices”, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,649,120, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/562,192, filed Nov. 22, 1995, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,568,618, entitled “Method and Apparatus for Controlling and Communicating With Business Office Devices”, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/473,780, filed Jun. 6, 1995, entitled “Method and Apparatus for Controlling and Communicating With Business Office Devices”, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,544,289, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/426,679, filed Apr. 24, 1995, entitled “Method and Apparatus for Controlling and Communicating With Business Office Devices,” now U.S. Pat. No. 5,537,554, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/282,168, filed Jul. 28, 1994, entitled “Method and Apparatus for Controlling and Communicating With Business Office Devices”, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,412,779, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/902,462, filed Jun. 19, 1992, now abandoned, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/549,278, filed Jul. 6, 1990, now abandoned, the disclosure of each is incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

This invention generally relates to a method, system and program product for monitoring and communicating events at plural target applications of an application unit by using at least one resource such as a Dynamic Linked Library (DLL) for multiple data formats and multiple communication protocols. The DLL supports multiple data formats and multiple communication protocols to communicate the event data. The application unit specifies at least one communication protocol to be used to report the information in at least one data format from the application unit. Each of the at least one communication protocol and each of the at least one data format are defined through an interface function. The formatting of data representing the event information is handled in at least three levels of software classes, with two levels of abstract classes and one concrete software class. The formatting of information to be transmitted through the specified communication protocol is handled in at least three levels of software classes, with one abstract class and two levels of concrete classes. Additionally, the DLL sends a file which includes the information to be reported through a communication protocol as discussed above.

2. Discussion of the Background

With the rise of microprocessor-based appliances and devices, software development has clearly become a significant business. In evaluating and supporting appliances and devices, it may be beneficial to monitor exactly how events in an appliance and device occur and how the states are changing. An example of events is an action caused by user interaction with an appliance. It may be helpful for a software developer to know which commands a user uses most often and how long those commands take to execute. Such an analysis is often referred to as “profiling.” (Analogous analysis was performed, e.g., on instructions in instruction sets to develop reduced instruction set computing (RISC) instructions.)

Further, in designing appliances and devices with which a human interacts, it may be desirable to monitor how the user interacts with such appliances and devices. As an example, it may be desirable to monitor how a user utilizes a control panel of an image forming device such as a photocopier, facsimile machine, printer, scanner, or an appliance such as a microwave oven, VCR, digital camera, cellular phone, palm top computer, etc.

Further, it may be desirable to monitor the state of the appliances and devices to provide diagnostics, services and maintenance needs. Some events may be caused by internal changes within the appliances and devices. Some events may be caused by abnormal conditions such as a paper jam in a copier. Some error conditions and warning conditions may be caused by, e.g., errors in the software installed in target appliances and devices.

Further, users are increasingly utilizing the Internet. There is significant interest in how users use the Internet, particularly with respect to how users may use certain web pages. Therefore, monitoring a user's usage of the Internet or its successor may also become significant.

It may also be desirable to determine how a user is utilizing a certain application unit (e.g., a computer running a software application, a device with an interface to be operated by a user, or a web page). The user's usage of the application unit must then be monitored and effectively communicated to a remote party.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, one object of the present invention is to provide a novel method and system for monitoring events of a target application of an application unit.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a novel method and system for communicating data obtained by monitoring events of a target application of an application unit to a remote party.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a novel method and system for communicating data obtained by monitoring events of a target application of an application unit to a remote party allowing various data formats and communication protocols to facilitate the communication system configuration and received data analysis.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a novel method and system for communicating data obtained by monitoring events of a target application of an application unit to a remote party allowing various data formats that ease the analyses of received data at a receiving side.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a novel method and system for communicating data obtained by monitoring events of a target application of an application unit to a remote party allowing various data formats by using a plurality of levels of software classes for formatting the event data and for formatting the data to be communicated to the remote party.

A further object of the present invention is to efficiently communicate the monitored event information to a transmission unit.

A further object of the present invention is to efficiently verify the combination of two parameters specifying the data format and communication protocol and to satisfy a restriction requirement on the second parameter specifying the communication protocol.

A further object of the present invention is to communicate externally stored information through the mechanism available for the communication of the monitored event information.

The present invention achieves these and other objects by monitoring the events of a target application of an application unit or by receiving the instruction to send the available stored information through a specified communication protocol. Examples of monitoring and of available stored information include (1) monitoring or logging data of a software program being executed on a computer or workstation under control of a user, (2) monitoring usage data of a control panel of an image forming apparatus (e.g., a copying machine, printer, facsimile, or scanner), or an appliance (e.g., a microwave oven, VCR, digital camera, cellular phone, or palm top computer), (3) monitoring or logging data regarding any internal state changes such as error conditions and warning conditions within appliances, devices and any systems and sending the results when requested or when events occur or when a preset time interval has passed, (4) externally monitoring states of appliances, devices or systems by polling at regular intervals, and (5) generally monitoring or logging any other device or service. The data obtained by monitoring events of a target application of an application unit, appliance, or device can, as a further feature in the present invention, be collected, logged and communicated to a desired location by a store-and-forward protocol (e.g., Internet e-mail) or a “direct” connection protocol, e.g., in which a socket connection is made to an ultimate destination machine (e.g., using FTP or HTTP). The use of store-and-forward communication reduces the costs associated with communicating such data. The data can be communicated to the desired location upon the occurrence of at least one of several events. Such events may include, e.g., each time a user exits a target application, or the completion of a predetermined number of times that a user has utilized and exited the target application of the application unit. If the configuration allows and if necessary, a direct connection between the monitored application and the monitoring system can be established in addition to the store-and-forward communication.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A more complete appreciation of the invention and many of the attendant advantages thereof will be readily obtained as the same becomes better understood by reference to the following detailed description when considered in connection with the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 illustrates three networked business office machines connected to a network of computers and databases through the Internet;

FIG. 2 illustrates the components of a digital image forming apparatus;

FIG. 3 illustrates the electronic components of the digital image forming apparatus illustrated inFIG. 2;

FIG. 4 illustrates details of a multi-port communication interface illustrated inFIG. 3;

FIG. 5 illustrates an alternative system configuration in which business office devices are either connected directly to the network or connected to a computer which is connected to the network;

FIG. 6A is a block diagram illustrating a flow of information to and from an application unit using electronic mail;

FIG. 6B illustrates an alternative way of communicating using electronic mail in which a computer which is connected to the application unit also serves as a message transfer agent;

FIG. 6C illustrates an alternative way of communicating using electronic mail in which an application unit includes a message transfer agent for exchanging electronic mail;

FIG. 6D illustrates an alternative way of communicating using electronic mail in which a mail server acts as aPOP 3 server to receive mail for an appliance/device and as an SMTP server to send mail for the appliance/device;

FIG. 7 illustrates an alternative manner of sending messages across the Internet;

FIG. 8 illustrates an exemplary computer which may be connected to an appliance/device and used to communicate electronic mail messages;

FIG. 9 is a block diagram illustrating connections between a monitoring and logging subsystem, a communications subsystem and a target application of an application unit in the present invention;

FIG. 10 illustrates a first example of an application unit to which the present invention can be applied;

FIG. 11 illustrates a second example of an application unit to which the present invention can be applied;

FIG. 12A illustrates an exemplary general architecture of the system;

FIG. 12B is an exemplary EventData class interface for use in the architecture ofFIG. 12A;

FIG. 12C is an exemplary FormattedData class interface for use in the architecture ofFIG. 12A;

FIG. 13A illustrates an exemplary calling sequence of the interface functions from application software within an application unit, appliance or device when a sequence of events are monitored;

FIG. 13B illustrates an exemplary calling sequence of the interface functions from application software within an application unit, appliance or device when a file is sent;

FIG. 14 illustrates exemplary processing when the application software instructs a DLL to send a file;

FIG. 15 is an exemplary class structure used to format the monitored sequence data or a specified file;

FIG. 16 illustrates an exemplary formatting process of the monitored event data through a formatter to create a text string list of formatted data;

FIG. 17 illustrates an exemplary formatting process of a file which may contain any data including the monitored event data or system log;

FIG. 18 is an exemplary class structure for communication protocol processors;

FIG. 19 illustrates exemplary processing when the application software instructs the system to save the monitored event data to a local disk;

FIG. 20 illustrates exemplary processing when the application software instructs the system to send the monitored event data through Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP);

FIG. 21 illustrates exemplary processing when the application software instructs the system to send the monitored event data through File Transfer Protocol (FTP);

FIG. 22 illustrates an exemplary class structure of a format and protocol information base;

FIG. 23 is an exemplary interaction diagram using a storeFormatAndProtocol( ) function of a CFormatProtocol_InformationBase class;

FIG. 24 is an exemplary interaction diagram using a getFormatAndProtocolVector( ) function of the CFormatProtocol_InformationBase class;

FIG. 25 is an exemplary interaction diagram using a verifyFormatProtocol( ) function of the CFormatProtocol_InformationBase class;

FIGS. 26A and 26B are an exemplary data structure and algorithm used in a checkAndModifyCombination( ) function of a CCombinationCheckForMonitoring class; and

FIGS. 27A and 27B are an exemplary data structure and algorithm used in the checkAndModifyCombination( ) function of the CCombinationCheckForFileSend class.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Referring now to the drawings, wherein like reference numerals designate identical or corresponding parts throughout the several views, and more particularly toFIG. 1 thereof, there are illustrated (1) various machines and (2) computers for monitoring, diagnosing and controlling the operation of the machines. InFIG. 1, there is afirst network16, such as a Local Area Network (LAN) connected tocomputer workstations17,18,20 and22. The workstations can be any type of computers including, e.g., IBM Personal Computer compatible devices, Unix-based computers, or Apple Macintoshes. Also connected to thenetwork16 are (1) a digitalimage forming apparatus24, (2) afacsimile machine28, and (3) aprinter32. As would be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art, two or more of the components of the digitalimage forming apparatus24 and thefacsimile machine28 can be combined into a unified “image forming apparatus.” Thedevices24,28 and32 and theworkstations17,18,20 and22 are referred to as machines or monitored devices and other types of devices may be used as the machines or monitored devices, including any of the devices discussed below. In some configurations, one or more workstations may be converted to business office appliances. One example of such a business office appliance is eCabinet from Ricoh which was demonstrated at Fall Comdex in 1999 at Las Vegas. Also, a facsimile server (not illustrated) may be connected to thenetwork16 and have a telephone, ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network), cable or wireless connection. In addition to the digitalimage forming apparatus24,facsimile machine28, andprinter32 being connected to thenetwork16, these devices may also include conventional telephone and/or ISDN and/or cable and/orwireless connections26,30 and34, respectively. As is explained below, the business office machines, business devices orbusiness office appliances24,28 and32 communicate with a remote monitoring, diagnosis and control station, also referred to as a monitoring device, through the Internet via thenetwork16 or by a direct telephone, ISDN, wireless, or cable connection.

InFIG. 1, a wide area network (WAN) (e.g., the Internet or its successor) is generally designated by10. TheWAN10 can either be a private WAN, a public WAN or a hybrid. TheWAN10 includes a plurality of interconnected computers and routers designated by12A-12I. The manner of communicating over a WAN is known through a series of RFC documents obtained by HTTP://www.ietf.org/rfc.html, including RFC 821 entitled “Simple Mail Transfer Protocol” from Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF); RFC 822 entitled “Standard for the Format of ARPA Internet Text Message” from IETF; RFC 959 entitled “File Transfer Protocol (FTP)” from IETF; RFC 2045 entitled “Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) Part One: Format of Internet Message Bodies” from IETF; RFC 1894 entitled “An Extensible Message Format for Delivery Status Notifications”; RFC 1939 entitled “Post Office protocol—Version 3”; and RFC 2298 entitled “An Extensible Message Format for Message Disposition Notifications.” The contents of each of these references are incorporated herein by reference.

TCP/IP related communication is described, for example, in the book “TCP/IP Illustrated,” Vol. 1, The Protocols, by W. R. Stevens, from Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1994, which is incorporated herein by reference. Volumes 1-3 of “Internetworking with TCP/IP” by Comer and Stevens are also incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

InFIG. 1, afirewall50A is connected between theWAN10 and thenetwork16. A firewall is a device that allows only authorized computers on one side of the firewall to access a network, computers or individual parts on the other side of the firewall. Firewalls are known and commercially available devices and/or software (e.g., SunScreen from Sun Microsystems Inc.). Similarly, firewalls50B and50C separate theWAN10 from anetwork52 and aworkstation42, respectively. Additional details on firewalls can be found in “Firewalls and Internet Security” by W. R. Cheswick, and S. M. Bellovin, 1994, Addison-Wesley Publishing, and “Building Internet Firewalls” by D. B. Chapman and E. D. Zwicky, 1995, O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. The contents of those references are incorporated herein by reference.

Thenetwork52 is a conventional network and includes a plurality ofworkstations56,62,68 and74. These workstations may be in different departments (e.g., marketing, manufacturing, design engineering and customer service departments) within a single company. In addition to the workstations connected via thenetwork52, there is aworkstation42, which is not directly connected to thenetwork52. Information in a database stored in adisk46 may be shared using proper encryption and protocols over theWAN10 to the workstations connected directly to thenetwork52. Also, theworkstation42 includes a direct connection to a telephone line and/or ISDN and/or cable and/orwireless network44 and the database indisk46 may be accessed through the telephone line, ISDN, cable or wirelessly. The cable used by this invention may be implemented using a cable which typically is used to carry television programming, a cable which provides for high speed communication of digital data typically used with computers or the like, or any other desired type of cable.

Information of the business office machines, business devices orbusiness office appliances24,28 and32 may be stored in one or more of the databases stored in thedisks46,54,58,64,70 and76. Known databases include (1) SQL databases by Microsoft, Oracle and Sybase (2) other relational databases, and (3) non-relational databases (including object oriented databases). Each of the customer service, marketing, manufacturing, and engineering departments may have their own database or may share one or more databases. Each of the disks used to store databases is a non-volatile memory such as a hard disk or optical disk. Alternatively, the databases may be stored in any storage device including solid state and/or semiconductor memory devices. As an example,disk64 contains the marketing database,disk58 contains the manufacturing database,disk70 contains the engineering database anddisk76 contains the customer service database. Alternatively, thedisks54 and46 store one or more of the databases.

In addition to theworkstations56,62,68,74 and42 being connected to the WAN, these workstations may also include a connection to a telephone line, ISDN, cable, or wireless network which provides a secure connection to the machine being monitored, diagnosed and/or controlled and is used during communication. Additionally, if one communication medium is not operating properly, one of the others can be automatically used for communication.

A feature of the present invention is the use of a “store-and-forward” mode of communication (e.g., Internet electronic mail) or transmission between a machine and a computer for diagnosing and controlling the machine. Alternatively, the message which is transmitted may be implemented using a mode of communication that makes direct, end-to-end connections (e.g., using a socket connection to the ultimate destination) such as FTP and HTTP.

FIG. 2 illustrates the mechanical layout of the digitalimage forming apparatus24 illustrated inFIG. 1. InFIG. 2,101 is a fan for the scanner,102 is a polygonal mirror used with a laser printer, and103 designates an Fθ lens used to collimate light from a laser (not illustrated).Reference numeral104 designates a sensor for detecting light from the scanner.105 is a lens for focusing light from the scanner onto thesensor104, and106 is a quenching lamp used to erase images on thephotoconductive drum132. There is a chargingcorona unit107 and a developingroller108.Reference numeral109 designates a lamp used to illustrate a document to be scanned and110,111 and112 designate mirrors used to reflect light onto thesensor104. There is adrum mirror113 used to reflect light to thephotoconductive drum132 originating from thepolygon mirror102.Reference numeral114 designates a fan used to cool the charging area of the digital image forming apparatus, and115 is a first paper feed roller used for feeding paper from thefirst paper cassette117, and116 is a manual feed table. Similarly,118 is a second paper feed roller for thesecond cassette119.Reference numeral120 designates a relay roller,121 is a registration roller.122 is an image density sensor and123 is a transfer/separation corona unit.Reference numeral124 is a cleaning unit,125 is a vacuum fan,126 illustrates a transport belt,127 is a pressure roller, and128 is an exit roller.Reference numeral129 is a hot roller used to fix toner onto the paper,130 is an exhaust fan and131 is the main motor used to drive the digital image forming apparatus.

FIG. 3 illustrates a block diagram of the electronic components illustrated inFIG. 2. TheCPU160 is a microprocessor and acts as the system controller. Random access memory (RAM)162 stores dynamically changing information including operating parameters of the digital image forming apparatus. A non-volatile memory (e.g., a read only memory (ROM)164 or a Flash Memory) stores (1) the program code used to run the digital image forming apparatus and (2) static-state data, describing the copier (e.g., the model number, serial number of the copier, and default parameters).

There is amulti-port network interface166 which allows the digital image forming apparatus to communicate with external devices through at least one network.Reference number168 represents a telephone, ISDN, or cable line, and numeral170 represents another type of network. Additional details of the multi-port network interface are described with respect toFIG. 4. Aninterface controller172 is used to connect anoperation panel174 to asystem bus186. Theoperation panel174 includes standard input and output devices found on a digital image forming apparatus including a copy button, keys to control the operation of the copier such as number of copies, reducement/enlargement, darkness/lightness, etc. Additionally, a liquid crystal display may be included within theoperation panel174 to display parameters and messages of the digital image forming apparatus to a user.

Alocal connection interface171 is a connection through local ports such as RS232, the parallel printer port, USB, andIEEE 1394. FireWire (IEEE 1394) is described in Wickelgren, I., “The Facts About “FireWire”, IEEE Spectrum, April 1997, Vol. 34,Number 4, pp. 19-25, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. Preferably, communication utilizes a “reliable” protocol with error detection and retransmission.

Astorage interface176 connects storage devices to thesystem bus186. The storage devices include aflash memory178 which can be substituted by a conventional EEPROM and adisk182. Thedisk182 includes a hard disk, optical disk, and/or a floppy disk drive. There is aconnection180 connected to thestorage interface176 which allows for additional memory devices to be connected to the digital image forming apparatus. Theflash memory178 is used to store semi-static state data which describes parameters of the digital image forming apparatus which infrequently change over the life of the copier. Such parameters include the options and configuration of the digital image forming apparatus. Anoption interface184 allows additional hardware such as an external interface to be connected to the digital image forming apparatus. A clock/timer187 is utilized to keep track of both the time and date and also to measure elapsed time.

On the left side ofFIG. 3, the various sections making up the digital image forming device are illustrated.Reference numeral202 designates a sorter and contains sensors and actuators used to sort the output of the digital image forming device. There is aduplexer200 which allows a duplex operation to be performed by the digital image forming device and includes conventional sensors and actuators. The digital image forming device includes a largecapacity tray unit198 which allows paper trays holding a large number of sheets to be used with the digital image forming device. The largecapacity tray unit198 includes conventional sensors and actuators.

Apaper feed controller196 is used to control the operation of feeding paper into and through the digital image forming device. Ascanner194 is used to scan images into the digital image forming device and includes conventional scanning elements such as a light, mirror, etc. Additionally, scanner sensors are used such as a home position sensor to determine that the scanner is in the home position, and a lamp thermistor is used to ensure proper operation of the scanning lamp. There is a printer/imager192 which prints the output of the digital image forming device and includes a conventional laser printing mechanism, a toner sensor, and an image density sensor. Thefuser190 is used to fuse the toner onto the page using a high temperature roller and includes an exit sensor, a thermistor to assure that thefuser190 is not overheating, and an oil sensor. Additionally, there is anoptional unit interface188 used to connect to optional elements of the digital image forming device such as an automatic document feeder, a different type of sorter/collator, or other elements which can be added to the digital image forming device.

FIG. 4 illustrates details of themulti-port network interface166. The digital image forming device may communicate to external devices through aToken Ring interface220, acable modem unit222 which has a high speed connection over cable, aconventional telephone interface224 which connects to atelephone line168A, anISDN interface226 which connects to anISDN line168B,wireless interface228, and anEthernet interface230 which connects to aLAN170. Other interfaces (not shown) include, but are not limited to, Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) (original DSL, concentric DSL, and asymmetric DSL). A single device which connects to both a Local Area Network and a telephone line is commercially available from Megahertz and is known as the Ethernet-Modem.

The CPU or other microprocessor or circuitry executes a monitoring process to monitor the state of each of the sensors of the digital image forming device, and a sequencing process is used to execute the instructions of the code used to control and operate the digital image forming device. Additionally, there is (1) a central system control process executed to control the overall operation of the digital image forming device and (2) a communication process used to assure reliable communication to external devices connected to the digital image forming device. The system control process monitors and controls data storage in a static state memory (e.g., theROM164 ofFIG. 3), a semi-static memory (e.g., theflash memory178 or disk182), or the dynamic state memory (e.g., a volatile or non-volatile memory (e.g., theRAM162 or theflash memory178 or disk182)). Additionally, the static state memory may be a device other than theROM164 such as a non-volatile memory including either of theflash memory178 ordisk182.

The above details have been described with respect to a digital image forming device but the present invention is equally applicable to other business office machines or devices such as an analog copier, a facsimile machine, a scanner, a printer, a facsimile server, or other business office machines and business office appliance, or appliances (e.g., a microwave oven, VCR, digital camera, cellular phone, palm top computer). Additionally, the present invention includes other types of devices which operate using store-and-forward or direct connection-based communication. Such devices include metering systems (including gas, water, or electricity metering systems), parking meters, vending machines, or any mechanical devices (e.g., automobiles) that need to be monitored during operation or remote diagnosis. In addition to monitoring special purpose machines and computers, the invention can be used to monitor, control, and diagnose a general purpose computer which would be the monitored and/or controlled device.

FIG. 5 illustrates an alternative system diagram of the invention in which different devices and subsystems are connected to theWAN10. However, there is no requirement to have each of these devices or subsystems as part of the invention. Each component or subsystem illustrated inFIG. 5 is individually part of the invention. Further, the elements illustrated inFIG. 1 may be connected to theWAN10 which is illustrated inFIG. 5. InFIG. 5, there is illustrated a firewall50-1 connected to an intranet260-1. Aservice machine254 connected to the intranet260-1 includes therein or has connected theretodata256 which may be stored in a database format. Thedata256 includes history, performance, malfunction, and any other information including statistical information of the operation or failure or set-up and components or optional equipment of devices which are being monitored. Theservice machine254 may be implemented as the device or computer which requests the monitored devices to transmit data or which requests that remote control and/or diagnostic tests be performed on the monitored devices. Theservice machine254 may be implemented as any type of device and is preferably implemented using a computerized device such as a general purpose computer.

Another sub-system ofFIG. 5 includes a firewall50-2, an intranet260-2, and aprinter262 connected thereto. In this sub-system, the functions of sending and receiving electronic messages by the printer262 (and similarly by a copier286) are performed by (1) circuitry, (2) a microprocessor, or (3) any other type of hardware contained within or mounted to the printer262 (i.e., without using a separate general purpose computer).

An alternate type of sub-system includes the use of anInternet service provider264 which may be any type of Internet service provider (ISP), including known commercial companies such as America Online, Earthlink, and Niftyserve. In this sub-system, acomputer266 is connected to theISP264 through a digital or analog modem (e.g., a telephone line modem, a cable modem, modems which use any type of wires such as modems used over an ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) line, ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line), modems which use frame relay communication, wireless modems such as a radio frequency modem, a fiber optic modem, or a device which uses infrared light waves). Further, abusiness office device268 is connected to thecomputer266. As an alternative to the business office device268 (and any other device illustrated inFIG. 5), a different type of machine may be monitored or controlled such as a digital copier, any type of appliance, security system, or utility meter such as an electrical, water, or gas utility meter, or any other device discussed herein.

Also illustrated inFIG. 5 is a firewall50-3 connected to anetwork274. Thenetwork274 may be implemented as any type of computer network, (e.g., an Ethernet or token-ring network). Networking software which may be used to control the network includes any desired networking software including software commercially available from Novell or Microsoft. Thenetwork274 may be implemented as an Intranet, if desired. Acomputer272 connected to thenetwork274 may be used to obtain information from abusiness office device278 and generate reports such as reports showing problems which occurred in various machines connected to the network and a monthly usage report of the devices connected to thenetwork274. In this embodiment, acomputer276 is connected between thebusiness office device278 and thenetwork274. This computer receives communications from the network and forwards the appropriate commands or data, or any other information, to thebusiness office device278. Communication between thebusiness office device278 and thecomputer276 may be accomplished using wire-based or wireless methods including, but not limited to radio frequency connections, electrical connections and light connections (e.g., an infrared connection, or a fiber optics connection). Similarly, each of the various networks and intranets illustrated inFIG. 5 may be established using any desired manner including through the establishment of wireless networks such as radio frequency networks. The wireless communication described herein may be established using spread spectrum techniques including techniques which use a spreading code and frequency hopping techniques such as the frequency hopping wireless technique which is disclosed in the Bluetooth Specification 1.0A (available at the World Wide Web site http://www.bluetooth.com), which is incorporated herein by reference.

Another sub-system illustrated inFIG. 5 includes a firewall50-4, an intranet260-4, acomputer282 connected thereto, abusiness office appliance285 and acopier286. Thecomputer282 may be used to generate reports and request diagnostic or control procedures. These diagnostic and control procedures may be performed with respect to thebusiness office appliance285 and thecopier286 or any of the other devices illustrated in or used withFIG. 5. WhileFIG. 5 illustrates a plurality of firewalls, the firewalls are preferable but optional equipment and therefore the invention may be operated without the use of firewalls, if desired.

FIG. 6A illustrates a device/appliance300 connected to a typical e-mail exchange system which includescomponents302,304,306,308,310,312,314,316, and318 which may be implemented in a conventional manner and are adapted fromFIG. 28.1 of Stevens, above. Acomputer interface302 interfaces with any of the application units or devices/appliances300 described herein. WhileFIG. 6A illustrates that the device/appliance300 is the sender, the sending and receiving functions may be reversed inFIG. 6A. Furthermore, if desired, the user may not be needed to interface with the device/appliance300 at all. Thecomputer interface302 then interacts with amail agent304. Popular mail agents for Unix include MH, Berkeley Mail, Elm, and Mush. Mail agents for the Windows family of operating systems include Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Outlook Express. At the request of thecomputer interface302, themail agent304 creates e-mail messages to be sent and, if desired, places these messages to be sent in aqueue306. The mail to be sent is forwarded to a Message Transfer Agent (MTA)308. A common MTA for Unix systems is Sendmail. Typically, themessage transfer agents308 and312 exchange communications using a TCP/IP connection310. Notably, the communication between themessage transfer agents308 and312 may occur over any size network (e.g., WAN or LAN). Further, themessage transfer agents308 and312 may utilize any communication protocol. In the present invention,elements302 and304 ofFIG. 6A reside in the library to monitor the application unit's usage.

From themessage transfer agent312, e-mail messages are stored inuser mailboxes314 which are transferred to themail agent316 and ultimately transmitted to the user at a terminal318 which functions as a receiving terminal. The user at a terminal318 may, e.g., be a Resource Administrator or a remote controller which may, e.g., be notified in the event of equipment failure.

This “store-and-forward” process relieves the sendingmail agent304 from having to wait until establishment of a direct connection with the mail recipient. Because of network delays, the communication could require a substantial amount of time during which the application would be unresponsive. Such an unresponsiveness is generally unacceptable to users of the application unit. By using e-mail as the store-and-forward process, retransmission attempts after failures occur automatically for a fixed period of time (e.g., three days). In an alternate embodiment, the application can avoid waiting by passing communicating requests to one or more separate threads. Those threads can then control communication with the receivingterminal318 while the application begins responding to the user interface again. In yet another embodiment in which a user wishes to have communication completed before continuing, direct communication with the receiving terminal is used. Such direct communication can utilize any protocol not blocked by a firewall between the sending and receiving terminals. Examples of such protocols include File Transfer Protocol (FTP) and HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP).

Public WANs, such as the Internet, are generally not considered to be secure. Therefore, messages transmitted over the public WANs (and multi-company private WANs) should be encrypted to keep the messages confidential. Encryption mechanisms are known and commercially available which may be used with the present invention. For example, a C++ library function, crypt( ), is available from Sun Microsystems for use with the Unix operating system. Other encryption and decryption software packages are known and commercially available and may also be used with this invention. One such package is Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) Virtual Private Network (VPN) available from Network Associates. Other VPN software is available from Microsoft Corporation.

As an alternative to the general structure ofFIG. 6A, a single computer may be used which functions as thecomputer interface302, themail agent304, themail queue306 and themessage transfer agent308. As illustrated inFIG. 6B, the device/appliance300 is connected to acomputer301 which includes themessage transfer agent308.

A further alternative structure is shown inFIG. 6C in which themessage transfer agent308 is formed as part of the device/appliance300. Further, themessage transfer agent308 is connected to themessage transfer agent312 by a TCP/IP connection310. In the embodiment ofFIG. 6C, the device/appliance300 is directly connected to the TCP/IP connection310 and has an e-mail capability. One use of the embodiment ofFIG. 6C includes using a facsimile machine with an e-mail capability (e.g., as defined in RFC 2305 (a simple mode of facsimile using Internet mail)) as the device/appliance300.

FIG. 6D illustrates a system in which a device/appliance300 does not itself have the capability to directly receive e-mail, but has aconnection310 to a mail server/POP3 server including amessage transfer agent308 and amail box314 so that the device/appliance300 uses the POP3 protocol to retrieve received mail from the mail server.

FIG. 7 illustrates an alternative implementation of transferring mail and is adapted from FIG. 28.3 of Stevens referenced previously.FIG. 7 illustrates an electronic mail system having a relay system at each end. The arrangement ofFIG. 7 allows one system at an organization to act as a mail hub. InFIG. 7, there are four MTAs connected between the twomail agents304 and316. These MTAs includelocal MTA322A,relay MTA328A,relay MTA328B, andlocal MTA322D. The most common protocol used for mail messages is SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) which may be used with this invention, although any desired mail protocol may be utilized. InFIG. 7,320 designates a sending host which includes thecomputer interface302, themail agent304, and thelocal MTA322A. The device/appliance300 is connected to, or alternatively included within, the sendinghost320. As another case, the device/appliance300 and host320 can be in one machine where the host capability is built into the device/appliance300. Otherlocal MTAs322B,322C,322E and322F may also be included. Mail to be transmitted and received may be queued in a queue ofmail306B of therelay MTA328A. The messages are transferred across the TCP/IP connection310 (e.g., an Internet connection or a connection across any other type of network).

The transmitted messages are received by therelay MTA328B and if desired, stored in a queue ofmail306C. The mail is then forwarded to thelocal MTA322D of a receivinghost342. The mail may be placed in one or more of theuser mailboxes314 and subsequently forwarded to themail agent316 and finally forwarded to the user at a terminal318. If desired, the mail may be directly forwarded to the terminal without user interaction.

The various computers utilized by the present invention, including thecomputers266 and276 ofFIG. 5, may be implemented as illustrated inFIG. 8. Further, any other computer utilized by this invention may be implemented in a similar manner to the computer illustrated inFIG. 8, if desired, including theservice machine254,computer272, andcomputer282 ofFIG. 5. However, not every element illustrated inFIG. 8 is required in each of those computers. InFIG. 8, thecomputer360 includes aCPU362 which may be implemented as any type of processor including commercially available microprocessors from companies such as Intel, AMD, Motorola, Hitachi and NEC. There is a working memory such as aRAM364, and awireless interface366 which communicates with awireless device368. The communication between theinterface366 anddevice368 may use any wireless medium (e.g., radio waves or light waves). The radio waves may be implemented using a spread spectrum technique such as Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) communication or using a frequency hopping technique such as that disclosed in the Bluetooth specification.

There is aROM370 and aflash memory371, although any other type of non-volatile memory (e.g., EPROM, or an EEPROM) may be utilized in addition to or in place of theflash memory371. Aninput controller372 has connected thereto akeyboard374 and amouse376. There is aserial interface378 connected to aserial device380. Additionally, aparallel interface382 is connected to aparallel device384, a universal serial bus (USB)interface386 is connected to a universalserial bus device388, and also there is anIEEE 1394device400, commonly referred to as a fire wire device, connected to anIEEE 1394interface398. The various elements of thecomputer360 are connected by asystem bus390. Adisk controller396 is connected to afloppy disk drive394 and ahard disk drive392. Acommunication controller400 allows thecomputer360 to communicate with other computers (e.g., by sending e-mail messages) over atelephone line402 or anetwork404. An I/O (Input/Output)controller408 is connected to aprinter410 and ahard disk412, for example using a SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) bus. There is also adisplay controller416 connected to a CRT (Cathode Ray Tube)414, although any other type of display may be used including a liquid crystal display, a light emitting diode display, a plasma display, etc.

One feature in the present invention is monitoring how a user uses a target application of an application unit. The term application unit in this instance refers to a system which a user interacts with and controls. The term target application refers to a user controlled system that controls the application unit. For example, an application unit may typically be a computer and a target application may then be a software program, e.g. a word processor, running on the computer which a user operates, for example by moving a pointer on a computer screen and “clicking” on certain command icons to cause the software program to perform certain functions. In this sense, an application unit in the present invention may refer to any ofworkstations17,18,20,22,56,62,68,74,42 shown inFIG. 1 running a software program, thecomputer301 shown inFIG. 6B running a software program, etc. An application unit may also refer to an image forming device such as any of the digitalimage forming apparatus24,facsimile machine28, andprinter32 inFIGS. 1 and 2. In this instance, each of these application units includes a user interface, such asoperation panel174 as shown inFIG. 3, which a user interacts with and utilizes to control the application unit. The present invention can monitor a user selecting controls on such an operation panel. As a further example, the application unit could also be an appliance, such as a microwave oven, with an operation panel. An application unit can also refer to any other device, including software, with which a user interacts, and in this case the target application may refer to only one feature of the software with which the user interacts.

Another feature of the present invention is monitoring the user's usage of such a target application of an application unit, and communicating data regarding the monitored usage. This data will typically be transmitted by electronic mail by thecomputer interface302 ofFIG. 6A, or thecomputer301 ofFIG. 6B or the device/appliance300 ofFIG. 6C. This data regarding a user's usage of a target application of an application unit can then be utilized in many ways, for example in improving software development, in monitoring usage of a device (e.g., an image forming device), discovering user difficulties with appliances and software, and determining most frequently used features of application units.

FIG. 9 illustrates various exemplary elements of the present invention. More particularly,FIG. 9 shows a device/appliance300 includingtarget applications510,512 and513. Theuser interface510 is an interface for a user to control the appliance or device. As discussed above, in one common instance, the target application may be a software program running on one of theworkstations17,18,20,22 as shown inFIG. 1. In this instance, theuser interface510 may be a display on a monitor of one of these workstations. In such a case, amonitoring system515 may, e.g., monitor the user behavior of clicking a selected menu. As another exemplary application, the device/appliance300 may be a copier andapplication2,element512, may be an application for sorting multiple copies. Bothuser interface510 andapplication2,element512, would send event messages to themonitoring system515 to be logged.

Themonitoring system515 is implemented either only in hardware or using a combination of hardware and software where the combination includes at least one computer readable medium. Examples of computer readable media include, but are not limited to,compact discs119,hard disks112, floppy disks, tape, magneto-optical disks, PROMs (EPROM, EEPROM, Flash EPROM), DRAM, SRAM, SDRAM, magnetic or optical cards, or any type of media suitable for storing electronic information.

Stored on any one or on a combination of computer readable media, the present invention includes software for controlling both the hardware and for enabling the system to interact with a human user. Such software, in the form of computer code devices, may include, but is not limited to, device drivers, operating systems and user applications, such as development tools. Such computer readable media further includes the program product of the present invention for monitoring and controlling an application unit. The computer code devices of the present invention can be any interpreted or executable code mechanism, including but not limited to scripts, interpreters, dynamic link libraries, classes (e.g., Java or C++), packages (e.g., Java or C++) and complete executable programs.

Another illustrative embodiment ofFIG. 9 is an office device such as a digital copier whereapplication1,element510, is the user interface discussed previously.Application2,element512, is a software error tracking system to monitor internal error conditions of the software system.Application3,element513, is a mechanical error tracking system to monitor mechanical error conditions such as jam and toner out. All of the applications use themonitoring system515 and a sendingblock520. As a further example, and as noted above, the device/appliance300 may be an image forming device such as the digitalimage forming apparatus26,facsimile machine28, orprinter32 shown inFIG. 1. In this instance, theuser interface510 may take the form of an operation panel (e.g.,operation panel174 as shown inFIG. 3) with a plurality of keys and/or a touch screen which a user operates to control the image forming device. When the device/appliance300 as shown inFIG. 9 is an image forming device with auser interface510, the present invention can monitor the commands that a user selects. It is to be noted that the device/appliance may be any monitored device such as utilities and parking meters or any monitored appliance such as a microwave oven, VCR, digital camera, cellular phone, palm top computer, etc.

At a designated time, the logged data of the events is then sent to the sendingblock520, which then communicates such monitored event data to a designated party. Themonitoring system515 may be a monitoring and logging DLL which can be implemented in the device including the device/appliance300 or in another system control element. The protocol processing system may also be implemented in the device including the application unit or device/appliance300 as shown inFIG. 6C, or may also be implemented, as shown inFIG. 6B, in acomputer301 to which the application unit or device/appliance300 is attached. The present invention may also take the form of computer control codes recorded on a computer readable medium.

FIG. 10 shows an example wherein theuser interface510 of a target application is monitored. For example, the target application can be a word processor where a user behavior of clicking the menu is of interest. Monitoring andLogging System515 can monitor each instance of clicking of menu items. At the end of the task, the monitored data can be sent through theSending Block520.

One illustrative embodiment of such auser interface510 used with a digitalimage forming apparatus26,facsimile machine28, orprinter32 is shown inFIG. 11. In this embodiment, the present invention monitors each time a user presses one of the control buttons on the operation panel and logs the usage data of such a user's usage for subsequent communication.

As shown inFIG. 11, anoperation panel700 includes atouch screen705 on which various commands appear which an operator selects by touching different portions of thetouch screen705. Theoperation panel700 also includes a 10-key pad710 and variousother control buttons715. In the case of an image forming device, thecontrol buttons715 may be commands for, e.g., selecting a paper size, changing a magnification, changing a darkness of a desired image, etc.

When the device/appliance300 inFIG. 9 is an image forming device and theuser interface510 corresponds to theoperation panel700 as shown inFIG. 11, the present invention can monitor the commands shown inFIG. 11 that a user selects. Theoperation panel700 shown inFIG. 11 may, with modifications, also be an operation panel for a user-controlled appliance such as a microwave oven, VCR, digital camera, cellular phone, palm top computer, etc.

FIGS. 10 and 11 illustrate examples of the device/appliance300 anduser interface510 ofFIG. 9 to which the present invention can be applied. As would be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art, the present invention is directed to various types of application units including various types of user interfaces. The present invention is applicable to any device to be monitored which includes a user interface.

The present invention may be implemented using object-oriented technology, which is based upon the manipulation of software objects instantiated from software classes. A software class is considered as a user defined type equivalent to normal types such as integer type. The software class is typically declared with data items and procedures or software methods that operate on the data items. Many high-level languages, including C++, support the declaration of a class. Software objects instantiated for software classes are called instances of the software classes from which they are instantiated, and have all the features, or the “type” of the software class used for instantiation.

An abstract class is a software class that is not intended to be instantiated. The purpose of an abstract class is to define interfaces shared by derived classes through inheritance. An abstract class is frequently used with virtual functions or software methods which declare the interfaces with or without definitions. When a software class derived from an abstract class defines an inherited virtual function of the abstract class, the virtual function of the derived software class will be executed even when the instantiated object of the derived software class is accessed through a reference type of the base abstract class. If the function referenced is not a virtual function, the base class function or software method will be executed. This technique allows the client or user of the software object to execute the correct function or software method with only the knowledge of the abstract class. Many examples of such techniques are shown in Gamma, E., Helm, R., Johnson, R. and Vlissides, J.,Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Software, Addison-Wesley, Massachusetts, 1995, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

Object-Oriented Programming (“OOP”) is a programming methodology in which a program is viewed as a collection of discrete objects that are self-contained collections of data structures and routines that interact with other objects. As discussed above, a class has data items, structures, and functions or software methods. Data items correspond to variables and literals of prior programming art. Structures are named groupings of related data items and other structures;. Software methods correspond to functions and subroutines of prior programming art. An object-oriented framework is a reusable basic design structure, comprising abstract and concrete classes, that assists in building applications.

Pointers used for accessing specific objects, data items, and software methods are data items which include values of system equivalents of absolute addresses in computer memory. Null pointers, or zero pointers, are pointer variables or literals which have been assigned a system value, for example, zero, denoting that a specific pointer is currently pointing to a null or non-existent item. References and reference variables are generally data items which have values of system equivalents of absolute addresses in computer memory. In programming terminology, referencing a reference means accessing information at the computer memory address referenced by a pointer or reference.

A compiler is a software program that translates programs written in a high-level language, such as C++ or Pascal, into an intermediate language or machine language which is specific to a particular computer system configuration. In general programming terminology, data items, variables, and functions or software methods are declared so that a compiler knows specific names the programmer will use in the high-level language code to be translated. A compiler typically creates a symbol table to keep track of valid data items, variable names, function or software method names, structures, and addresses thereof as space is allocated. This process enables the compiler to assign numeric addresses to references to the data items, variables, functions or software methods, or software structures, or to create executable code to enable referencing of the data items, variables, functions or software methods or software structures during execution of the executable code that is output from the compilation process. For purposes of this invention, a declaration of a data item, variable, function, or software method is a declaration of the name of the data item, variable, function, or software method. A definition of the data item, variable, function, or software method is the defining content for the data item, variable, function, or software method. For example, the declaration of a software method named “draw” includes the name and types of interfaces for the software method, but not the defining code. The definition of the software method named “draw” includes the name of the software method, any needed data type information, information concerning parameters to be passed, and the defining code for the software method. In some programming languages, a definition is also a declaration.

The three main features of object-oriented programming are inheritance, encapsulation, and polymorphism. Encapsulation and polymorphism have already been described and are already well known in patents relating to object-oriented systems. Inheritance allows a programmer to establish a general software class with features which are desirable for a wide range of software objects. For example, if a programmer designs a software class shape having certain generalized features such as a closed convex shape and a generalized computable property called “draw,” it is then possible to construct subclasses derived from the superclass shape such as triangles, squares and circles, all having the shared properties of the parent class shape, with additional properties such as the lengths of sides or a radius value. It is also possible, for example, to have derived subclasses of classes which have additional properties such as a solid circle and a dashed circle.

The class shape is considered a base class, in that instantiations of actual objects is performed in its subclasses. The class shape is also considered an abstract class, in that it makes no sense to instantiate a shape object since object properties are not fully defined for the class shape. An abstract class is a class from which no objects are instantiated, and for which an interface for subclasses is established. The class shape establishes certain properties inherent to all shape subclasses for inheritance purposes. For example, an operation named “draw” of a shape, a commonly requested operation among users of shapes, can be declared as a software method for the class shape, to be inherited in all subclasses of the class shape. A programmer creates new classes derived from the class shape which inherit all desired features of the class shape without rewriting code already written for the class shape. This feature, called reusability, offers tremendous savings of time and resources in system development, maintenance, and support.

In many high-level programming languages, a programmer declares a derived class by providing the name of the class being declared and the names of base classes from which the derived class is to inherit properties. In the shape example discussed previously, the class shape is considered to be at a top level of an inheritance hierarchy, and is abstract since it makes no sense to instantiate shape objects with no definition of an actual shape, for example a square or a circle. Subclasses declared a level below the class shape are the subclasses specifically derived from the class shape, such as triangles, squares and circles. The subclasses triangles, squares and circles are then called children or subclasses of the class shape, and the class shape is called a parent or superclass of the classes triangles, squares and circles. Declarations of the subclasses specifically refer to the class shape for establishing inheritance. Subclasses a level below the class circle are the subclasses specifically derived from the class circle, such as solid circle and dashed circle. The classes solid circle and dashed circle are then called children or subclasses of the class circle, and the class circle is called a parent or superclass of the classes solid circle and dashed circle. Declarations of these subclasses specifically refer to the parent class circle for establishing inheritance. Since the class circle is derived from the class shape, the derived classes solid circle and dashed circle inherit all features of the class shape, and all additional features of the class circle.

In object-oriented programming, a pure virtual function is a function or software method declared with no defining code in an abstract class. For example, in declaring the abstract class shape described previously, a programmer declares a pure virtual function named “draw,” with no defining code, as a software method for the abstract class shape. Subclasses derived from the abstract class shape inherit the pure virtual function as a virtual function having the same name as the pure virtual function of the parent abstract class. The function name or software method name has executable code defined at some level in subclasses of the parent abstract class.

For the shape example discussed previously, assume the abstract class shape has a declaration for the pure virtual function named “draw.” Using formulas from basic algebra and geometry, the actual code executed for drawing a shape differs from one shape to another, so the code for the, function named “draw” is defined only in derived base classes used for instantiation of software objects. In C++, the virtual function is declared as a virtual function in all abstract subclasses to be used as superclasses for derived subclasses from which objects are to be instantiated with defining code for the virtual function of the abstract classes. For example, drawing a circle requires plotting points equidistant from a center point. Drawing a square generally requires plotting points to form four straight sides having equal length which are connected at right angles. Therefore, a request to draw a particular shape needs to accommodate the different properties of various desired shapes. Using a pure virtual function named “draw” in the abstract class shape, the code for drawing a circle is included as a software method named “draw” for instantiated circle software objects, and the code for drawing a square is included as a software method named “draw” for instantiated square software objects. A reference to a software object instance of the software method named “draw” causes execution of the code to draw the shape represented by the software object instance. For this, example, the shape of a circle is drawn if the code for an instantiated circle object is accessed, and a square is drawn if the code for an instantiated square object is accessed.

In C++, the code for the desired software method named “draw” is accessible by using a format including a reference to the desired circle or square instantiated software object and the name “draw.” A comprehensive discussion of the pure virtual function property of abstract classes in C++ is provided in Stroustrup, B.,The Design and Evolution of C++, Addison-Wesley, Massachusetts, 1994, in Stroustrup, B.,The C++ Programming Language Special Edition, Addison-Wesley, 2000, and in Meyers, S.,Effective C++:50Specific Ways to Improve Your Programs and Designs, Addison-Wesley, Massachusetts, 1992, all of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

Some object-oriented programming languages support multiple inheritance, wherein a software class derived from plural existing parent software classes inherits attributes and software methods from all parent software classes included in the desired derivation. As discussed above with regard to inheritance, a child subclass is declared by supplying the name of the class to be declared, and the names of the desired parent base classes for multiple inheritance. Additional properties for the child subclass are then declared and/or defined.

A comprehensive discussion of OOP is provided in Coad, P. and Yourdon, E.,Object-Oriented Analys, Second Edition, Prentice-Hall, Inc., New Jersey, 1991, and in Booch, G.,Object-Oriented Analysis and Design with Applications, Second Edition, Addison Wesley Longman, Calif., 1994, which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

FIG. 12A illustrates an exemplary general event management architecture of the system that can be implemented as, e.g., any one, or a combination of, a dynamic linked library (DLL), a script, a Java or C++ class, a C library or routine, etc. The remainder of this discussion describes the implementation in terms of a DLL, although this discussion is not intended to limit the scope of the invention to a DLL.

In general, anapplication510,512,513 as shown inFIG. 9 or anapplication514 ofFIG. 12A communicates through aninterface810. Theinterface810 specifies the Application Programming Interface (API) for the system management architecture (e.g., how information is passed via a C++ function call to the software object(s) in asystem manager830 with the same names). The functions to be used by the software application may be declared as follows:

• • 1. void setApplicationID(char *): The software application calls this function to inform the monitoring DLL of the name of the software application that is using it. The input to this function is a string representing the name of the software application using the DLL. The monitoring DLL maintains the information regarding the name of the software application that is using it. For example, if the software application is Microsoft Word, then the string “MS Word” may be used to identify the software application.
  • 2. void start:Monitoring( ): The software application calls this function to inform the monitoring DLL to start monitoring the usage of the software application. The monitoring DLL obtains and maintains the following information: user ID, cumulative number of sessions, and start time.
  • 3. void recordEvent(char*): The software application calls this function to inform the monitoring DLL to record a character string passed as data type pointer to data type char (i.e., char *) with the time elapsed from the start time. The monitoring DLL will maintain information regarding the character string and time elapsed.
  • 4. void stopMonitoring( ): The software application calls this function to inform the monitoring DLL that the software application is terminating. The monitoring DLL obtains arid maintains the duration of the execution of the software application. The monitoring DLL then sends the usage information using specified data format(s) with specified communication protocol(s).
  • 5. void selectFormatProtocol (int format, int protocol): The software application calls this function to inform the monitoring DLL which data format and communication protocol should be used to send the data. The values indicating specific data formats are specified in Table 1 shown below and the values indicating specific communication protocols are specified in Table 2 shown below.
  • 6. void sendFileWithProtocol (char * Path, char * FileName, int format, int protocol): This interface specifies a file which may contain any data including the monitored event data or system log to be sent using the specified communication protocol. The last two parameters, format and protocol are specified as above. The format of this example, however, accepts only values of 1 (text) or 5 (binary). If a format value of 10 or 20 is used, it is converted to 5 (binary). The intended use of this function is to enable other processes to monitor and format the data while using the DLL to send the data to the desired destination after calling the setApplicationID( ) function discussed above.
    A system managercomputer code device830 ofFIG. 12A manages the behavior of other computer code devices by using appropriate software objects and their functions.

When theinterface810 receives an application ID through the interface function setApplicationID( ) as described above, thesystem manager830 passes the information to asystem resource interface900 of asystem resource870 that in turn passes the application ID information to asystem registry930 to be stored.

Anevent logger840 records relevant information such as user ID, application ID, cumulative session number, start time, duration and sequence of events with the elapsed times when requested through thesystem manager830. Theevent logger840 supports functions including: initialize( ), storeEvent( ), stopMonitoring( ), and getEventData( ).

The initialize( ) function receives a reference to thesystem resource interface900 of thesystem resource870. Thesystem manager830 calls the initialize( ) function when startMonitoring( ) is called by theapplication514. The initialize( ) function passes, to theevent logger840, the reference to thesystem resource interface900. The reference to thesystem resource interface900 allows access to thesystem registry930 to obtain the application ID and to asystem clock940. Theevent logger840 handles the cumulative number of usages, reads the clock to store the start time in order to compute the elapsed time and duration, and sets up the user information by examining the registry.

After initialization, the storeEvent( ) function can be called with a string parameter for the event passed by recordEvent( ). Theevent logger840 stores the event string and the elapsed time from the start time (recorded during the initialize( ) function call).

After theapplication514 has completed its usage monitoring, it calls the stopMonitoring( ) function so that the duration can be computed. If multiple sessions are stored, this function stops the recording of a corresponding session.

In this example, the elapsed time is the time from the startMonitoring( ) function call to the recordEvent( ) function call where there can be more than one elapsed time interval in one monitoring session. The duration is the amount of time measured from the startMonitoring( ) function call to the stopMonitoring( ) function call. In order to compute elapsed time and duration, the system tracks the starting time internally and computes the difference between the starting time and the function calling time.

The function selectFormatProtocol( ) specifies the data format to be used to describe the monitored event data and the protocol to send the data to the destination. Table 1 describes the data format values and Table 2 describes the communication protocol values.

TABLE 1
Format Values and definitions

Format	Format
Name	Value	Comments

Text

	1	Plain text with no particular formatting. This
		format is for the sendFileWithProtocol( )
		interface. Monitoring of events should not use
		this format. If a monitoring function uses this
		format, the data format is interpreted as Comma
		Separated Format (10).
Binary	5	Default for sending a file. Binary encoding.
		This format is for the sendFileWithProtocol( )
		interface. Monitoring of events should not use
		this format. If a monitoring function uses this
		format, the data format is interpreted as Comma
		Separated Format (10).
Comma	10	Default for monitoring. For the interface
Separated		sendFileWithProtocol( ), the value is changed to
Format		5.
XML	20	For the interface sendFileWithProtocol( ), the
Format		value is changed to 5.

TABLE 2
Protocol Values and Definitions

Protocol	Protocol Value	Comments

Local Disk

	1	Local Disk Save. Default for monitoring
SMTP	10	Mail Body text/plain us-ascii. For a binary
		format, the communication protocol value
		is converted to 30.
	30	MIME application/octet-stream, base64.
FTP	100	Text. For a binary format, the communica-
		tion protocol value is converted to 105.
	105	Binary. Default for sending a file.

Theeventlogger840 also provides access to a getEventData( ) function. If the stopMonitoring( ) function was not previously called (i.e., the current session's duration field is undefined), the monitoring is stopped by calling the stopMonitoring( ) function. The stopMonitoring( ) function computes the duration of the current session. The getEventData( ) function returns an abstract class EventData with access functions as shown inFIG. 12B. The abstract class facilitates extensions for multiple sessions.

As discussed above,FIG. 12B shows the interface functions of the abstract class EventData returned by the function getEventData( ). The interface function of the abstract class EventData preferably describes what the function should do but does not provide the method to perform that function. The classes which are derived from the abstract class EventData preferably provide the method to perform those functions. Thus, when the function getEventData( ) returns an abstract class EventData, it is actually returning a class derived from the abstract class EventData which will provide the method for the interface functions. When the interface functions of the abstract class EventData are used, it is actually the interface functions of the derived class of the abstract class EventData that are used. However, it does not matter to the user of the abstract class EventData which derived class is being used. This allows flexibility for the representation of the abstract class EventData.

When the sendFileWithProtocol( ) function is called a specified file is sent through either SMTP or FTP after being formatted by thedata format processor850 and byprotocol processor860 that uses anSMTP resource920 and anFTP resource910 in thesystem resource870. In some cases, the user has an option to save the file in a specified local disk. The values in Tables 1 and 2 are used to describe the file attribute or data format and communication protocol used to send the file.

The format and protocol information base system820 (implemented as any one or a combination of package, DLL, static library, etc.) stores the data format and communication protocol information and checks the combination of formats and protocols to determine valid combinations, and sets the values to correct values or default values when the passed data are not correct. To facilitate the storage process, the storeFormatAndProtocol( ) function accepts two parameters (i.e., one for data format and one for communication protocol).

The format and protocolinformation base system820 also includes a getFormatAndProtocolVector( ) function which returns a data format and associated vector of communication protocols. The getFormatAndProtocolVector( ) function is mainly used for sequence monitoring. The returned value is a boolean value where a value of true indicates that valid parameters were returned and a value of false indicates that no more data is available. The returned parameters are of data types int and vector of int. The first returned parameter of data type int refers to the data format while the second returned parameter of data type vector of int refers to the vector of communication protocols for the data format. When there is no selectFormatProtocol( ) function call, the getFormatAndProtocolVector( ) function returns the default setting. As would be evident, other collections or lists (e.g., a list template) may be used in place of a vector.

Sending the file involves using the function verifyFormatProtocol( ) of theinterface810. The verifyFormatProtocol( ) function checks the combination of the data format and communication protocol. If the combination is not determined to be valid, the system automatically changes the values to an acceptable combination.

Thedata Format processor850 formats the data into a specified data format which is derived from an abstract class format. One exemplary function is the formatData( ) function that receives a pointer to the abstract class EventData or two strings. The returned value is a pointer to an abstract class FormattedData. The interface to a FormattedData abstract class is defined as inFIG. 12C.

As discussed above,FIG. 12C shows the interface functions of the abstract class FormattedData returned by the function formatData( ). The interface function of the abstract class FormattedData preferably describes what the function should do but does not provide the method to perform that function. The classes which are derived from the abstract class FormattedData preferably provide the method to perform those functions. Thus, when the function formatData ( ) returns an abstract class FormattedData, it is actually returning a class derived from the abstract class FormattedData which will provide the method for the interface functions. When the interface functions of the abstract class FormattedData are used, it is actually the interface functions of the derived class of the abstract class FormattedData that are used. However, it does not matter to the user of the abstract class FormattedData which derived class is being used. This allows flexibility for the representation of the abstract class FormattedData.

Theprotocol processor860 outputs the formatted data through the specified communication protocol. In one embodiment, theprotocol processor860 also encrypts the body of the message. To output the data, a processFormattedData( ) function is called with an input pointer to the abstract class FormattedData and a reference to thesystem resource interface900. The processFormattedData( ) function returns a boolean value where a value of true indicates no errors, and a value of false indicates the existence of an error while processing the formatted data.

The components of thesystem resource870 supply important information shared by the various components of the monitoring process and persistent information across the execution of the DLL. Some of the important information is timer information provided through thesystem clock940. Thesystem registry930 for recording necessary information which is required to send out the monitored information is another component of thesystem resource870. Many registry entries are set up at installation time. An exemplary structure for the registry is:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE—SOFTWARE—RicohMonitor—XXX(ApplicationID)
In this exemplary structure, XXX represents the application ID, and the following variables are placed in the registry under the XXX tree: CumulativeUsage, Local Directory, UserID, SMTP Server, Pecipients, From, FTP Server, FTP User, FTP Password, FTP Target Path etc. In a preferred embodiment, CumulativeUsage is an integer, and the rest of the variables are strings.

FIG. 13A illustrates an exemplary calling sequence of various computer code devices according to the present invention when the sequence of events is monitored. The application software sets up the application ID and starts the monitoring computer code device. When an event to be monitored occurs, the application sends a message to the monitoring computer code device with the event name so that the monitoring computer code device will track the name of the event and the timing. When the application no longer needs to monitor any activities, the application sends a command to select the format and protocol to be used to send the monitored information. The application then calls the stopMonitoring( ) function, either explicitly or implicitly, as described below.

More specifically,FIG. 13A illustrates a calling sequence of the interface functions from application software within an application unit, appliance or device when a sequence of events are monitored. The application software may be, e.g.,element512 or513 discussed previously with regard toFIG. 9 orelement514 as discussed previously with regard toFIG. 12A. Instep1, the application software calls the function setApplicationID( ) to send the name of the software application to the monitoring DLL. Instep2, the application, e.g.,514 calls the function startMonitoring( ) to inform the monitoring DLL to start monitoring the usage of thesoftware application514. Instep3, upon the occurrence of an event, theapplication514 calls the function recordEvent( ) to inform the monitoring DLL to record the event and time elapsed from the start time. Instep4, theapplication514 calls the function selectFormatProtocol( ) to inform the monitoring DLL which data format and communication protocol should be used to format and send data regarding the monitoring of theapplication514. Instep5, upon closing theapplication514, theapplication514 calls the stopMonitoring( ) function to inform the monitoring DLL that thesoftware application514 is terminating. As indicated previously the monitoring DLL obtains and maintains the duration of the execution of thesoftware application514. Instep6, the monitoring system (i.e., the monitoring DLL) sends the monitored usage information to a specified destination.

AlthoughFIG. 13A describes sending the monitored information each time an application stops monitoring, in an alternate embodiment, information is sent only upon a secondary event happening (e.g., elapsed time or after a number of events or monitoring sessions have occurred). Also, the protocol includes saving the monitored information in a local storage medium, such as a hard disk.

FIG. 13B illustrates an exemplary calling sequence of various computer code devices according to the present invention when the file which may contain any data including the monitored event data or system log is sent. Instep1, theapplication software514 sets up the application ID by calling setApplicationID( ) as discussed with regard toFIG. 13A. At a certain time, instep2, the application software function calls the sendFileWithProtocol( ) function with the file location, data format, and communication protocol to be used. Instep3, the monitoring system sends the file.

FIG. 14 illustrates the process of sending the file which includes the monitoring information (e.g., after the sendFileWithProtocol( ) function is called as shown inFIG. 13B). Insteps1 and2, theapplication514 sends to thesystem manager830, through theinterface810, parameter values for the file name, file path, data format and communication protocol using the C++ function call sendFileWithProtocol( ). Instep3, thesystem manager830 verifies the combination of the data format and communication protocol using the verifyFormatProtocol( ) function of the format andprotocol information base820. Instep4, thesystem manager830 passes the file location information to thedata format processor850 through the formatData( ) function and receives a pointer to the abstract class of formatted data. Instep5, thesystem manager830 then passes the returned pointer and a reference to thesystem resource interface900 through the processFormattedData( ) function to anappropriate protocol processor860 to send the formatted data.

FIG. 15 illustrates an exemplary class structure inside thedata format processor850 ofFIG. 12A. ACAbsDataFormatter class1000 ofFIG. 15 defines the interfaces among all the formatters The virtual function formatData( ) includes two overloaded functions, one function defined with one parameter (a pointer to the abstract event data) and the other defined with two parameters (a file path and a file name), both of which return a pointer toCAbsFormattedData1100. Exemplary declarations of interface functions inCabsDataFormatter1000 are as follows:

	virtual CAbsFormattedData * formatData (CAbsEventData * in_pEventData) = 0;
	virtual CAbsFormattedData * formatData (std::string in_sFilePath, std::string

	in_sFileName) = 0;

The assignments of a value of 0 denote that the class is an abstract class. The interface functions of theCAbsFormattedData1100 are as follows:

• • enum DataType {Text=1, Binary=2};
  • CAbsFormattedEventData( );
  • virtual ˜CAbsFormattedEventData( );
  • virtual bool getNextLine (string & out_sLine)=0;
  • string getFileNameWithSuffix( );
  • void setFileNameWithSuffix(string in_sFileName);
  • virtual DataType getDataType(void)=0;
    The functions getNextLine( ), getFileNameWithSuffix( ), and getDataType( ) are described inFIG. 12C. The type of the data to be handled is defined by enum DataType. TheCAbsFormattedData1100 includes one attribute to track the file name and suffix.CFileDataFormatter1030 handles the actual file opening through a virtual function openFile( ) inCAbsFileFormattedData1120 based upon the file path and file name values. The derivedclasses CBinaryFileDataFormatter1032 andCTextFileDataFormatter1034 set up the target formatteddata CBinaryFileFormattedData1122 andCTextFileFormattedData1124, respectively, in the attribute of thebase class CFileDataFormatter1030 within the constructor. They destroy the created formatted data within the destructor. By having theintermediate class CFileDataFormatter1030 and theCAbsFileFormattedData1120, code duplication for opening the file to be handled by the processor is eliminated. The other two formatters,CCommaDataFormatter1010 andCXMLDataFormatter1020, share the same formatteddata structure CTextStringListFormattedData1110.

FIG. 16 illustrates an exemplary embodiment for formatting the monitored event data. Instep1, thesystem manager830 passes a pointer to the CAbsEventData object (more specifically, a pointer to the object of the derived class) to the CAbsDataFormatter1000 (more specifically, an object of the derivedclass CComnmaDataFormatter1010 or CXMLDataFormatter1020) through the function formatData( ), which is an overloaded function. Because one parameter of type pointer to the CAbsEventData is passed, the correct function is called. The function formatData( ) returns a pointer to an object of CAbsFormatted Data1100 (i.e., an object of the derived class CTextStringListFormattedData1110).

FIG. 17 illustrates an exemplary embodiment for formatting the file object to be sent to a predetermined destination. Instep1, thesystem manager830 passes two strings defining the file location, i.e., the file path and file name to the CAbsDataFormatter1000 (i.e., an object of the derived classes,CBinaryFileDataFormatter1032 or CTextFileDataFormatter1034). The function formatData( ), however, is defined in theCFileDataFormatter1030 using the interface function of theCAbsFileDataFormatter1120. The formatData( ) function returns a pointer to an object of CAbsFormattedData1100 (i.e., an object of the derivedclass CBinaryFileFormattedData1122 or CTextFileFormattedData1124).

The advantage of using the abstract classes is shown in the following listing of the source code fragments:

	CAbsEventData * loc_pAbsEventData = m_UsageLogger.getEventData();
	if(NOT loc_pAbsEventData) return;
	int loc_nFormat;
	std::vector<int> loc_ProtocolVector;
	while(m_FormatProtocol_InformationBase.getFormatAndProtocolVector(

	loc_nFormat, loc_ProtocolVector)){
	CAbsDataFormatter * loc_pAbsDataFormatter =

m_ProcessorBuilder.createDataFormatProcessor(loc_nFormat);

if(NOT loc_pAbsDataFormatter) continue;

CAbsFormattedData * loc_pAbsFormattedData =

loc_pAbsDataFormatter->formatData(loc_pAbsEventData);

	..........}

There is no need to address the concrete data formatter and concrete formatted data objects in the source code. Although there are fourdata formatter classes1010,1020,1032, and1034 inFIG. 15 and three formatteddata classes1110,1122, and1124, only theCAbsDataFormatter1000 andCAbsFormattedData1100 are referenced in the code. New data formatters and new formatted data can be added without changing the above code. The new data formatter should be of a derived class ofCAbsDataFormatter1000 and the new formatted data should be of a derived class ofCAbsFormattedData1100.

FIG. 18 illustrates an exemplary class structure of theprotocol processor860 ofFIG. 12A.CAbsProtocolProcessor1200 includes the interface virtual function, processFormattedData( ), which passes two parameters: a pointer to the abstract formatteddata1000 and a reference to thesystem resource interface900.CAbsProtocolProcessor1200 has five derivedclasses CLocalDiskProtocolProcessor1210,CSMTPBodyProtocolProcessor1220,CSMTPMIMEBase64ProtocolProcessor1230,CFTPBinaryProtocolProcessor1240, andCFTPTextProtocolProcessor1250. Each of the derived classes defines the method to process the formatted data for the respective derived class.

FIG. 19 illustrates exemplary steps to save the data to a local disk. Instep1, the system manager330 passes to theCAbsProtocolProcessor1200 which was discussed previously with regard toFIG. 18, using the function processFormattedData( ), a reference to thesystem resource870 and a pointer to the abstract formatted data. For this task, theCAbsProtocolProcessor1200 is an object of the derivedclass CLocalDiskProtocolProcessor1210. Instep2, the processFormattedData( ) function ofCLocalDiskProtocolProcessor1210 obtains the reference to thesystem registry930 from thesystem resource interface900 using a getSystemRegistry( ) function. Instep3, the directory where the data is to be saved is obtained from thesystem registry930 using a getLocalDirectory( ) function. The interface functions of theCAbsFormattedData1100 inFIG. 12C are used to define the file name to be saved and to extract the data to be saved from the abstract formatted data.

FIG. 20 illustrates exemplary steps to send the information including monitoring data through SMTP. Instep1, thesystem manager830 passes two parameters toCAbsProtocolPrccessor1200 through the function processFormattedData( ). For this task, theCAbsProtocolPrccessor1200 is an object of the derivedclass CSMTPBodyProtocolProcessor1220 orCSMTPMIMEBase64ProtocolProcessr1230. Instep2, the processFormattedData( ) virtual function obtains the pointer to theSMTP Resource920 from thesystem resource interface900 using a getSMTPResourcePointer( ) function. Instep3, the virtual function passes a pointer to the abstract formatted data to the correct interface function sendUsingSMTPXX( ) of an SMTP resource class where XX indicates a value of 10 or 30 as shown in Table 2 which was discussed previously. The interface functions of theCAbsFormattedData1100 inFIG. 12C are used to define the file name to be saved and to extract the data to be saved from the abstract formatted data within theSMTP resource920.

FIG. 21 illustrates exemplary steps to send the information including monitoring data through FTP. Instep1, thesystem manager830 passes two parameters, a reference to thesystem resource870 and a pointer to the abstract formatted data, toCAbsProtocolProcessor1200 through the function processFormattedData( ). For this task, theCAbsProtocolProcessor1200 is an object of the derivedclass CFTPBinaryProtocolProcessor1240 orCFTPTextProtocolProcessor1250. Instep2, the processFormattedData( ) virtual function obtains a pointer toFTP resource910 from thesystem resource interface900 using a getFTPResourcePointer( ) function. Instep3, the virtual function passes the pointer to the abstract formatted data and the information indicating binary or text format using the function sendUsingFTP( ) to theFTP resource class910. The interface functions of theCAbsFormattedData1100 inFIG. 12C are used to define the file name to be saved and to extract the data to be saved from the abstract formatted data within theFTP resource910.

An advantage of using the abstract classes is shown in the following code fragment:

for (std::vector<int>::iterator loc_ProtocolVectorIterator = loc_ProtocolVector.begin();

	loc_ProtocolVectorIterator NE loc_ProtocolVector.end();
	loc_ProtocolVectorIterator ++){
	CAbsProtocolProcessor * loc_pAbsProtocolProcessor =

m_ProcessorBuilder.createProtocolProcessor(* loc_ProtocolVectorIterator);

if(NOT loc_pAbsProtocolProcessor) continue;

loc_pAbsProtocolProcessor->processFormattedData(loc_pAbsFormattedData,

m_SystemResourceInterface);

}

Although there are fivedifferent protocol processors1210,1220,1230,1240, and1250 inFIG. 18, the code needs to reference only theabstract class CAbsProtocolProcessor1200. New protocol processors can be easily added without changing the above code through a derived class ofCAbsProtocolProcessor1200.

FIG. 22 illustrates an exemplary class structure of the format andprotocol information base820 shown inFIG. 12A. ACFormatProtocol_InformationBase class1300 includes an attribute which represents a map structure with an integer value as a key and a vector of integer values as a value of the attribute. TheCFormatProtocol_InformationBase class1300 also contains two classes to assist the verification of the input values for the data format and communication protocol. ACCombinationCheckForMonitoring class1310 is used for an event monitoring application and aCCombinationCheckForFileSend class1320 is used for sending a file.

FIG. 23 is an interaction diagram showing thesystem manager830 using the storeFormatAndProtocol( ) function of theCFormatProtocol_InformationBase class1300. Instep1, two integer parameters indicating a data format and a communication protocol are passed from theapplication514 via thesystem manager830 through the storeFormatAndProtocol( ) interface function. Instep2, the two integer values are passed to theCCombinationCheckForMonitoring class1310, which was discussed previously with regard toFIG. 22, through a function checkAndModifyCombination( ). If the input values are not modified, the function checkAndModifyCombination( ) returns a value of true; otherwise, the function returns a value of false. When the checkAndModifyCombination( ) function returns a value of false, either one or both of the integer values are changed. Therefore, theCFormatProtocol_InformationBase class1300 should check whether the two values are already in the m_FormatProtocolVectorMap shown inFIG. 22. If the combination is not in the map, the return values are inserted in the m_FormatProtocolVectorMap. If the function returns a value of true, the two integer values are inserted in the m_FormatProtocolVectorMap.

FIG. 24 is an exemplary interaction diagram for obtaining a data format and a communication protocol vector. Instep1, thesystem manager830 calls a function getFormatAndProtocolVector( ) to return the data format and communication protocol vector from theCformalProtocol_InformationBase class1300, which was discussed previously with regard toFIG. 22. The getFormatAndProtocolVector( ) function returns a value of true when the data format and communication protocol vector values are returned. The getFormatAndProtocolVector( ) function returns a value of false when there is no more data format with communication protocol vector combination.

FIG. 25 illustrates an exemplary interaction diagram when thesystem manager830 uses the verifyFormatProtocol( ) function of theCFormatProtocol_InformationBase class1300 to check the combination of data format and communication protocol for processing a file. Instep1, thesystem manager830 calls the verifyFormatProtocol( ) function to pass two integers indicating a data format and a communication protocol to theCFormatProtocol_InformationBase1300 which was discussed previously with regard toFIG. 22. Instep2, the two values are passed to theCCombinationCheckForFileSend class1320 through a function checkAndModifyCombination( ). If the two integer input values are not modified, the checkAndModifyCombination( ) function returns a value of true. Otherwise it returns a value of false with one or both of the two integer input values modified.

FIG. 26A illustrates an exemplary data structure used byCCombinationCheckForMonitoring1310 to check the combination of the data format and communication protocols.FIG. 26A is a map structure where the key is of data type integer and the value is another data structure which is a set of values. The map and set have a function find( ) that returns an iterator of the structure. If the function find( ) returns the end, the searched value is not in the structure.

FIG. 26B illustrates an exemplary algorithm of the checkAndModifyCombination( ) function discussed previously with regard toFIG. 23. Two integers inOut_nFormat and inOut_nProtocol are passed through the function parameters. Instep1, the return Boolean value is set to true. Instep2, the find( ) function is used for the map as shown inFIG. 26A to determine whether the passed data format inOut_nFormat is found in the key field. Instep3 ofFIG. 26B, if the data format is not found, the value is set to a default data format value and the return Boolean value is set to false. Instep4, the set corresponding to the data format is obtained from the map as shown inFIG. 26A. Instep5, the find( ) function of the set is used to determine whether the passed communication protocol inOut_nProtocol is in the set which was obtained instep4. Instep6, if the communication protocol is not found, the communication protocol is set to a default value and the return Boolean is set to a value of false. Instep7, the function returns the value of return-bool. The map structure is very flexible and if a new format such as binary encoding of the monitored data is used, the map can be expanded to accommodate such an encoding. For this example, the corresponding set in the map for the binary encoding format should not contain 10 and 100 because they correspond to the Text handling protocols.

FIG. 27A illustrates an exemplary data structure used byCCombinationCheckForFileSend1320 discussed previously with regard toFIGS. 22 and 25 to check the combination of the data format and communication protocols.FIG. 27A is a map structure wherein the key is type integer (1 or 5) for data format and the value is also a map structure. The second map structure contains a key and value of integers (1, 10, 30, 100, and 105) for communication protocols. In this implementation, the data format value of 5 can not be used with the communication protocol values of 10 and 100 which are for text. Therefore, the communication protocol values are changed to 30 and 105 respectively.

FIG. 27B illustrates an algorithm of the checkAndModifyCombination( ) function discussed previously with regard toFIG. 25 that is similar toFIG. 26B discussed previously, the main difference being an “else” clause instep6. Similarly to the algorithm ofFIG. 26B, the return-bool is set to a value of false if either inOut_nFormat or inOut_Protocol is changed by the call to the checkAndModifyCombination( ) function. In the “else” clause, return-bool is computed as the logical-AND of a result of checking the inOut_nFormat fromstep3 with the result of checking the inOut_nProtocol.

This invention may be conveniently implemented using a network of conventional general purpose digital computers and/or microprocessors programmed according to the teachings of the present specification, as will be apparent to those skilled in the computer art from reading the above descriptions regarding the figures. Appropriate software coding can readily be prepared by skilled programmers based on the teachings of the present disclosure, as will be apparent to those skilled in the software art. The invention may also be implemented by the preparation of application specific integrated circuits or by interconnecting an appropriate network of conventional component circuits, as will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art.

The present invention includes a computer program product which is a storage medium including instructions which can be used to program a computer or other device, or a plurality of networked computers or other devices, to perform a process of the invention. The storage medium can include, but is not limited to, any type of disk including floppy disks, optical discs, CD-ROMs, and magneto-optical disks, ROMs, RAMs, PROMs, EPROMs, EEPROMs, magnetic or optical cards, or any type of media suitable for storing electronic instructions.

Stored on any one or on a combination of computer readable media, the present invention includes software for driving a device or devices for implementing the invention. Such software may include, but is not limited to, device drivers, operating systems, development tools, and applications software. Such computer readable media further includes the computer program product of the present invention. The instructions stored on the computer program product drive a device or devices for implementing the invention. This device, or these devices, have been described, or are known to those of ordinary skill in the art. The compiler code devices of the present invention can be any interpreted or executable code mechanism, including but not limited to scripts, interpreters, dynamic link libraries, Java classes, and complete executable programs.

Obviously, numerous modifications and variations of the present invention are possible in light of the above teachings. It is therefore to be understood that, within the scope of the appended claims, the invention may be practiced otherwise than as specifically described herein.

Claims (25)

1. An object-oriented method of collecting information regarding a plurality of target applications in an appliance or device, comprising:

receiving, from a first one of the plurality of target applications through an interface, by a monitoring device in the appliance or device, a request to send first information regarding monitored usage of the first one of the plurality of target applications to a first predetermined destination through a first communication protocol using a first data format; and

receiving, from a second one of the plurality of target applications through the interface, by the monitoring device, a request to send second information regarding monitored usage of the second one of the plurality of target applications to a second predetermined destination through a second communication protocol using a second data format, wherein the first communication protocol is different from the second communication protocol.

2. The method according toclaim 1, wherein

the first data format includes one of text format, binary format, comma separated format, and eXtensible Markup Language (XML) format; and

the first communication protocol includes one of Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), File Transfer Protocol (FTP), and local disk.

3. The method according toclaim 1, wherein the first data format is different from the second data format.

4. The method according toclaim 1, further comprising:

formatting the first information into first formatted data according to the first data format;

sending the first formatted data to the first predetermined destination through the first communication protocol;

formatting the second information into second formatted data according to the second data format; and

sending the second formatted data to the second predetermined destination through the second communication protocol.

5. The method according toclaim 4, wherein formatting the first information comprises:

creating a first software class having a declared virtual function;

creating a second software class, derived from the first software class, having a first definition of the declared virtual function; and

creating a first formatted information software object.

6. The method according toclaim 5, wherein creating the first formatted information software object, comprises:

formatting first formatted information according to one of comma separated format and XML format.

7. The method according toclaim 5, wherein sending the first formatted data, comprises:

creating a third software class, derived from the first software class, having a second definition of the declared virtual function; and

creating a first formatted data software object.

8. The method according toclaim 7, wherein creating a first formatted data software object, comprises:

formatting first formatted data according to one of binary format and text format.

9. An object-oriented system for collecting information regarding a plurality of target applications in an appliance or device, the system comprising:

a monitoring device in the appliance or device, the monitoring device configured to receive, from a first one of the plurality of target applications through an interface, a request to send first information regarding monitored usage of the first one of the plurality of target applications to a first predetermined destination through a first communication protocol using a first data format, and to receive, from a second one of the plurality of target applications through the interface, a request to send second information regarding monitored usage of the second one of the plurality of target applications to a second predetermined destination through a second communication protocol using a second data format, wherein the first communication protocol is different from the second communication protocol.

10. The system according toclaim 9, wherein

the first data format includes one of text format, binary format, comma separated format, and XML format; and

the first communication protocol includes one of SMTP, FTP, and local disk.

11. The system according toclaim 9, wherein the first data format is different from the second data format.

12. The system according toclaim 9, further comprising:

a device configured to format the first information into first formatted data according to the first data format;

a device configured to send the first formatted data to the first predetermined destination through the first communication protocol;

a device configured to format the second information into second formatted data according to the second data format; and

a device configured to send the second formatted data to the second predetermined destination through the second communication protocol.

13. The system according toclaim 12, wherein the device configured to format the first information, comprises:

a device configured to create a first software class having a declared virtual function;

a device configured to create a second software class, derived from the first software class, having a first definition of the declared virtual function; and

a device configured to create a first formatted information software object.

14. The system according toclaim 13, wherein the device configured to create the first formatted information software object, comprises:

a device configured to format first formatted information according to one of comma separated format and XML format.

15. The system according toclaim 13, wherein the device configured to send the first formatted data, comprises:

a device configured to create a third software class, derived from the first software class, having a second definition of the declared virtual function; and

a device configured to create a first formatted data software object.

16. The system according toclaim 15, wherein the device configured to create the first formatted data software object, comprises:

a device configured to format first formatted data according to one of binary format and text format.

17. A program product for collecting information regarding a plurality of target applications in an appliance or device, the program product comprising a computer readable medium embodying program instructions for causing an object-oriented system to perform the steps of:

receiving, from a first one of the plurality of target applications through an interface, by a monitoring device in the appliance or device, a request to send first information regarding monitored usage of the first one of the plurality of target applications to a first predetermined destination through a first communication protocol using a first data format; and

receiving, from a second one of the plurality of target applications through the interface, by the monitoring device, a request to send second information regarding monitored usage of the second one of the plurality of target applications to a second predetermined destination through a second communication protocol using a second data format, wherein the first communication protocol is different from the second communication protocol.

18. The program product according toclaim 17, wherein

the first data format includes one of text format, binary format, comma separated format, and XML format; and

the first communication protocol includes one of SMTP, FTP, and local disk.

19. The program product according toclaim 17, wherein the first data format is different from the second data format.

20. The program product according toclaim 17, wherein the program instructions cause the system to further perform the steps of:

formatting the first information into first formatted data according to the first data format;

sending the first formatted data to the first predetermined destination through the first communication protocol;

formatting the second information into second formatted data according to the second data format; and

sending the second formatted data to the second predetermined destination through the second communication protocol.

21. The program product according toclaim 20, wherein formatting the first information, comprises:

creating a first software class having a declared virtual function;

creating a second software class, derived from the first software class, having a first definition of the declared virtual function; and

creating a first formatted information software object.

22. The program product according toclaim 21, wherein creating the first formatted information software object, comprises:

formatting first formatted information according to one of comma separated format and XML format.

23. The program product according toclaim 21, wherein sending the first formatted data, comprises:

creating a third software class, derived from the first software class, having a second definition of the declared virtual function; and

creating a first formatted data software object.

24. The program product according toclaim 23, wherein creating the first formatted data software object, comprises:

formatting first formatted data according to one of binary format and text format.

25. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the first predetermined destination is a component internal to the appliance or device.

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